I'm trying to set up "User Categories" (aka collections) in the Grouping menu following FAQ #5. I have a custom metadata column in my Calibre library called "category" and I want to use this for grouping. However I can't seem to get it to work.

What I've done so far is go into Preferences->Plugins->Smart Device Plugin and choose customise plugin. I then enter category in the box at the bottom. "Comma separated list of metadata fields to turn into collections...". I then apply the changes, stop and start the wireless device from the calibre end and re-connect on CC. But when I choose Group and user categories I get no entries.

I've tried deleting and re-adding books. I've tried different variations of what to put in that plugin configuration - "category", "{category}" and "{#category}". Nothing so far has worked.

I feel like I must be missing something - can anyone help?

(Calibre version 0.8.65 running on Linux, CC version 1.6.1 running on Nexus 7 on Jelly Bean.)

I'm trying to set up "User Categories" (aka collections) in the Grouping menu following FAQ #5. I have a custom metadata column in my Calibre library called "category" and I want to use this for grouping. However I can't seem to get it to work.

What I've done so far is go into Preferences->Plugins->Smart Device Plugin and choose customise plugin. I then enter category in the box at the bottom. "Comma separated list of metadata fields to turn into collections...". I then apply the changes, stop and start the wireless device from the calibre end and re-connect on CC. But when I choose Group and user categories I get no entries.

I've tried deleting and re-adding books. I've tried different variations of what to put in that plugin configuration - "category", "{category}" and "{#category}". Nothing so far has worked.

I feel like I must be missing something - can anyone help?

(Calibre version 0.8.65 running on Linux, CC version 1.6.1 running on Nexus 7 on Jelly Bean.)

You want to enter #category.

However, unless you are using some of the special collections features such as sorting or renaming, you probably want to enter #collections in the "custom categories" dialog in calibre companion. This gives you a sortable collection on all the data in the column.

However, unless you are using some of the special collections features such as sorting or renaming, you probably want to enter #collections in the "custom categories" dialog in calibre companion.

I assume you mean "#category" which I just tried and it works. I had tried this feature but with other metadata columns and it didn't appear to work.

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This gives you a sortable collection on all the data in the column.

OK just to clarify because you used the word "sortable", I can now group on my category column but I can't sort on it. I can only sort on title, author or series. I mean grouping implies sorting but I can't just sort without grouping. Not that I would necessarily want to but just checking I understand correctly.

Also, when I group (by whatever column) it combines the groups alphabetically. I don't have a long list of categories so I'd prefer just the single level of grouping - is that possible?

OK just to clarify because you used the word "sortable", I can now group on my category column but I can't sort on it. I can only sort on title, author or series. I mean grouping implies sorting but I can't just sort without grouping. Not that I would necessarily want to but just checking I understand correctly.

Apologies for the ambiguity.

The order of books in user categories is determined by calibre. When looking at the books in such a category the sort menu will be disabled. The order of books in all other categories, custom or otherwise, is determined on the device using the sort functions: title, author, series.

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Also, when I group (by whatever column) it combines the groups alphabetically. I don't have a long list of categories so I'd prefer just the single level of grouping - is that possible?

No. At least not yet. I have considered it, but its priority is rather low.

1) the next release of calibre contains changes that let us speed up metadata syncing during connection. On my Galaxy Nexus with 1000 books on it, the time went from around 4 minutes to 20 seconds. I can't guarantee everyone will get this increase, but it will be faster.

2) We are improving CC performance at startup and when grouping. The next release of CC (1.7) has the improvements when not grouping; application startup on my galaxy nexus with 1000 books is now close to instantaneous. Tomorrow's job is to do the same thing to grouping.

3) The next CC release (again, 1.7) improves performance when flinging by delaying drawing the cover thumbnails. It can look a little odd seeing coverless books flying by, but the benefit is that they actually fly by (on my phone).

4) Some people have posted 1-star reviews on Google Play saying that they are having licensing problems. We believe we have fixed these problems in CC release 1.7 by working around problems caused by using multiple google accounts with Android 2.3 devices. We can't leave comments on Google Play so I mention it here in hopes they will notice.

A plea: we are making very fundamental changes in CC, which increases the risk that we will break something. Please do not hesitate to post on Mobileread if you run across something that worked before but no longer does. If we don't know about a problem we can't fix it. Thank you.

Early announcements:
4) Some people have posted 1-star reviews on Google Play saying that they are having licensing problems. We believe we have fixed these problems in CC release 1.7 by working around problems caused by using multiple google accounts with Android 2.3 devices. We can't leave comments on Google Play so I mention it here in hopes they will notice.

Google Play was recently updated with the ability to respond to reviews. Only the person who posted the app can do it of course.

I have a continuing problem with Calibre and my Mac, when I go to connect/share, wireless device connection, I obtain a IP address that is not on my network, I enter that address in my Nexus7 and try to connect, It has never worked, Prior to this I was able to get a IP address on my network and had immediate connection. Is there a way to control the IP connection in Calibre?
I am using version 8.66.

I have a continuing problem with Calibre and my Mac, when I go to connect/share, wireless device connection, I obtain a IP address that is not on my network, I enter that address in my Nexus7 and try to connect, It has never worked, Prior to this I was able to get a IP address on my network and had immediate connection. Is there a way to control the IP connection in Calibre?
I am using version 8.66.

You probably have network "adapters" that are not attached to the network your device is using. This can happen if you have virtual adapters (e.g., you installed a virtual machine), both wireless and cabled connections, or are actually connected to two different networks (your machine is acting as a router). Calibre shows one of them, the one that it thinks is the most probable. When there are multiple active network adapters there is no way for calibre to know which one the device will actually use. It is possible that the address it shows is not the network your device will connect over.

On the other hand, calibre actually listens on *all* the network adapters. If you know the IP address of the computer on the network your device is on (probably a cable or a wireless connection), enter that. If you do not know that IP address and if you have no way to find it, then I am not sure what to do.

The next release of calibre will have the option of specifying which IP address that the wireless device is to listen upon. That will stop it from listening on the other network devices. However, to use this you will need to know which of the several IP addresses your computer is using is the correct one.

I do not have any network adapters, I only have a single network, my router is 192.168.1.1, the calibre program is constantly attaching to 10.211.55.2 port 9090, when I try to have the Nexus7 with CC manually connect to that IP it claims that there is no network.

I do not have any network adapters, I only have a single network, my router is 192.168.1.1, the calibre program is constantly attaching to 10.211.55.2 port 9090, when I try to have the Nexus7 with CC manually connect to that IP it claims that there is no network.

You must have a network adapter on your computer, virtual or real, that has the IP address 10.211.55.2. There is no other way that calibre could come up with that number. The fact that it is a 10. address implies that it is virtual, probably for a windows or other virtual machine you have on your mac.

What is the IP address of your computer on the 192. network? That is what you should enter into calibre companion. As I said, calibre is actually listening on all the networks that your computer is using. I don't own a Mac so cannot give you exact instructions, but the site http://osxdaily.com/2010/11/21/find-ip-address-mac/ seems to explain how to do it.

I wish I knew of some way to avoid this sort of problem. Clearly calibre picking one of the several IP addresses available didn't work for you, but we have no way of knowing *which IP address* is the right one. Perhaps we (calibre) should refuse to show any IP addresses if the machine has more than one of them in order to avoid this confusion. Perhaps showing them all would be better, with a notation like "one of 10.1.1.1, 20.4.2.5, 192.168.12.10, or 2.3.4.5".